Discrete Event Models:
Getting the Semantics Right
Edward A. Lee
Robert S. Pepper Distinguished Professor
Chair of EECS
UC Berkeley
With special thanks to Xioajun Liu, Eleftherios Matsikoudis,
Haiyang Zheng, and Ye (Rachel) Zhou
Chess Review
February 14, 2007
Berkeley, CA
Ptolemy II: Our Laboratory for Studying
Concurrent Models of Computation
Concurrency management supporting
dynamic model structure.
Director from an
extensible library
defines component
interaction semantics or
“model of computation.”
Extensible component library.
Visual editor for defining models
Type system for
communicated
data
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Some Models of Computation
Implemented in Ptolemy II
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CSP – concurrent threads with rendezvous
CT – continuous-time modeling
DE – discrete-event systems
DDE – distributed discrete events
DDF – dynamic dataflow
DPN – distributed process networks
DT – discrete time (cycle driven)
FSM – finite state machines
Giotto – synchronous periodic
GR – 2-D and 3-D graphics
PN – process networks
SDF – synchronous dataflow
SR – synchronous/reactive
TM – timed multitasking
This talk will
focus on
Discrete
Events (DE)
But will also
establish
connections
with
Continuous
Time (CT),
Synchronous
Reactive (SR)
and hybrid
systems (CT +
FSM)
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Discrete Events (DE): A Timed Concurrent
Model of Computation
DE Director implements
timed semantics using an
event queue
Actors communicate via
“signals” that are marked
point processes (discrete,
valued, events in time).
Actor (in this case,
source of events)
Reactive actors produce
output events in response
to input events
Plot of the value (marking) of a
signal as function of time.
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Our Applications of DE

Modeling and simulation of
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Communication networks (mostly wireless)
Hardware architectures
Systems of systems
Design and software synthesis for
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Sensor networks
Distributed real-time software
Hardware/software systems
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Objective:
Rigorous
Models
This model is a
hierarchical mixture of
three models of
computation (MoCs): DE,
FSM, and CT.
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The Hybrid
Plant Model
Raw material buffer filling
during setup time
Bottle filling at
maximum rate
Raw material buffer filling
during setup time
Bottle filling at
limited rate
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First Attempt at a Model for Signals
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First Attempt at a Model for Signals
This model is not rich enough because it does not allow a signal to
have multiple events at the same time.
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Example Motivating the Need for
Simultaneous Events Within a Signal
Newton’s Cradle:
 Steel balls on strings
 Collisions are events
 Momentum of the middle ball has three values at
the time of collision.
This example has continuous dynamics as well
(I will return to this)
Other examples:
 Batch arrivals at a queue.
 Software sequences abstracted as instantaneous.
 Transient states.
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A Better Model for Signals:
Super-Dense Time
This allows signals to have a sequence of values at any real time t.
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Super Dense Time
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Events and Firings
Operationally, events are processed by presenting all
input events at a tag to an actor and then firing it.
However, this is not always possible!
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A Feedback Design Pattern
data input port
trigger input port
In this model, a sensor produces measurements that are combined with
previous measurements using an exponential forgetting function.
The feedback loop makes it impossible to present the Register actor with
all its inputs at any tag before firing it.
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Solving Feedback Loops
Possible solutions:
 Find algebraic solution
 All actors have time delay
 Some actors have time delay,
and every directed loop must have an actor with time delay.
 All actors have delta delay
 Some actors have delta delay
and every directed loop must have an actor with delta delay.
Although each of these solutions is used, all are problematic.
The root of the problem is simultaneous events.
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Consider “Find Algebraic Solution”
This solution is used by Simulink, but is ill posed.
Consider:
This has two solutions:
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Consider “All Actors Have Time Delay”
If all actors have time delay, this produces either:
 Event with value 1 followed by event with value 2, or
 Event with value 1 followed by event with value 3.
(the latter if signal values are persistent).
Neither of these is likely what we want.
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Consider “All Actors Have Delta Delay”
With delta delays, if an input event is ((t, n), v), the corresponding
output event is ((t, n+1), v’). Every actor is assumed to give a delta
delay.
This style of solution is used in VHDL.
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Consider “All Actors Have Delta Delay”
If all actors have a delta delay, this produces either:
 Event with value 1 followed by event with value 2, or
 Event with value 1 followed by event with value 3
(the latter if signal values are persistent, as in VHDL).
Again, neither of these is likely what we want.
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More Fundamental Problem: Delta Delay
Semantics is Not Compositional
The top composition of two actors will have a two delta delays,
whereas the bottom abstraction has only a single delta delay.
Under delta delay semantics, a composition of two actors
cannot have the semantics of a single actor.
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Consider “Some actors have time delay,
and every directed loop must have an
actor with time delay.”
Any non-zero time delay imposes an upper bound on the rate at
which sensor data can be accepted. Exceeding this rate will
produce erroneous results.
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Consider “Some actors have delta delay,
and every directed loop must have an
actor with delta delay.”
data input port
trigger input port
The output of the Register actor must be at least one index later
than the data input, hence this actor has at least a delta delay.
To schedule this, could break the feedback loop at actors with delta
delay, then do a topological sort.
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Naïve Topological Sort is not
Compositional
Breaking loops where an actor has a delta delay and
performing a topological sort is not a compositional
solution:
Does this composite actor have a
delta delay or not?
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Our Answer: No Required Delay, and
Feedback Loops Have (Unique)
Least Fixed Points Semantics
Output is a
single event
with value 3.0
Given an input event ((t, n), v), the corresponding output event is
((t, n), v’). The actor has no delay.
The challenge now is to establish a determinate semantics and a
scheduling policy for execution.
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How Does This Work?
Execution of Ptolemy II Actors
Flow of control:
 Initialization
 Execution
 Finalization
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How Does This Work?
Execution of Ptolemy II Actors
Flow of control:
 Initialization
 Execution
 Finalization
Post tags on the event queue
corresponding to any initial
events the actor wants to
produce.
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How Does This Work?
Execution of Ptolemy II Actors
Flow of control:
 Initialization
 Execution
 Finalization
Iterate
If (prefire()) {
fire();
postfire();
}
Only the postfire() method can
change the state of the actor.
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How Does This Work?
Execution of Ptolemy II Actors
Flow of control:
 Initialization
 Execution
 Finalization
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Definition of the Register Actor (Sketch)
class Register {
private Object state;
boolean prefire() {
Can the
if (trigger is known) { return true; }
actor fire?
}
void fire() {
if (trigger is present) {
send state to output;
React to
} else {
trigger
data input port
assert
output
is
absent;
input.
}
}
void postfire() {
Read the
if (trigger is present) {
data input
state = value read from data input;
and update
}
the state.
}
trigger
input
port
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Execution of a DE Model (Conceptually)

Start with all signals empty. Initialize all
actors (some will post tags on the event
queue).
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Take all earliest tag (t, n) from the event
queue.
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Mark all signals unknown at tag (t, n).
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Prefire and fire the actors in any order. If
enough is known about the inputs to an
actor, it may make outputs known at (t, n).
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Keep firing actors in any order until all
signals are known at (t, n).
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When all signals are known, postfire all
actors (to commit state changes).
Any actor may now post a tag
(t’, n’) > (t, n) on the event queue.
Key questions:
 Is this right?
 Can this be made efficient?
The answer, of course, is yes to both.
This scheme underlies
synchronous/reactive languages
(Esterel, Lustre, Signal, etc.)
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Where We Are
Proposed:
 Superdense time
 Zero delay actors
 Execution policy
Now: Show that it’s right.
 Conditions for uniqueness (Scott continuity)
 Conditions for liveness (causality)
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Observation: Any Composition is a
Feedback Composition
sSN
We have a least fixed point
semantics.
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Prefix Order**
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Monotonic and Continuous Functions**
Every continuous function is monotonic, and behaves as follows:
Extending the input (in time or tags) can only extend the output.
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Knaster-Tarski Fixed-Point Theorem**
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Start with empty signals.
Iteratively apply function F.
Converge to the unique solution.
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Summary: Existence and Uniqueness of
the Least Fixed Point Solution.
sSN
Under our execution policy,
actors are usually (Scott)
continuous.
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But: Need to Worry About Liveness:
Deadlocked Systems
Existence and uniqueness of a solution is not enough.
The least fixed point of this system consists of empty
signals. It is deadlocked!
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Another Liveness Concern:
Zeno Systems
DE systems may have
an infinite number of
events in a finite amount
of time. These “Zeno
systems” can prevent
time from advancing.
In this case, our execution policy
fails to implement the KnasterTarski constructive procedure
because some of the signals are
not total.
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Liveness
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A signal is total if it is defined for all tags in T.
A model with no inputs is live if all signals are total.
A model with inputs is live if all input signals are total
implies all signals are total.
Liveness ensures freedom from deadlock and Zeno.
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Whether a model is live is, in general, undecidable.
We have developed a useful sufficient condition
based on causality that ensures liveness.
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Causality Ensures Liveness
of an Actor
Causality does not imply continuity and continuity does not imply
causality. Continuity ensures existence and uniqueness of a least
fixed point, whereas causality ensures liveness.
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Strict Causality Ensures Liveness of a
Feedback Composition
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Continuity, Liveness, and Causality
This gives us sufficient, but not necessary condition for
freedom deadlock and Zeno.
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Recall Deadlocked System
The feedback loop has no strictly causal actor.
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Feedback Loop that is Not Deadlocked
This feedback loop also has no strictly causal actor, unless…
We aggregate the two actors as shown into one.
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Causality Interfaces Make Scheduling of
Execution and Analysis for Liveness
Efficient
A causality
interface exposes
just enough
information about
an actor to make
scheduling and
liveness analysis
efficient.
An algebra of
interfaces enables
inference of the
causality interface
of a composition.
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Models of Computation
Implemented in Ptolemy II














CSP – concurrent threads with rendezvous
CT – continuous-time modeling
DE – discrete-event systems
DDE – distributed discrete events
DDF – dynamic dataflow
DPN – distributed process networks
DT – discrete time (cycle driven)
FSM – finite state machines
Giotto – synchronous periodic
GR – 2-D and 3-D graphics
PN – process networks
SDF – synchronous dataflow
SR – synchronous/reactive
TM – timed multitasking
Done
But will also
establish
connections
with
Continuous
Time (CT) and
hybrid systems
(CT + FSM)
SR is a special
case of DE
where time has
no metric.
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Standard Model for
Continuous-Time Signals
In ODEs, the usual formulation of the signals of interest
is a function from the time line (a connected subset of
the reals) to the reals:
Such signals are continuous at t 
if (e.g.):
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Piecewise Continuous Signals
In hybrid systems of interest, signals have discontinuities.
Piecewise continuous signals are continuous at all
t  \ D where D 
is a discrete set.1
1A
set D with an order relation is a discrete set if there exists an order
embedding to the integers.
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Operational Semantics of Hybrid Systems
A computer execution of a hybrid system is constrained
to provide values on a discrete set:
Given this constraint, choosing T  as the domain of
these functions is an unfortunate choice. It makes it
impossible to unambiguously represent discontinuities.
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Discontinuities Are Not Just
Rapid Changes
Discontinuities
must be
semantically
distinguishable
from rapid
continuous
changes.
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Solution is the Same:
Superdense Time
This makes it quite easy to construct models that
combine continuous dynamics with discrete
dynamics.
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Ideal Solver Semantics
[Liu and Lee, HSCC 2003]
In the ideal solver semantics, an ODE
governing the hybrid system has a unique
solution for intervals [ti , ti+1), the interval
between discrete time points. A discrete trace
loses nothing by not representing values
within these intervals.
t0 t1 t2t3 ...
ts
t
Common fixed point semantics enables hybrid discrete/continuous models.
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The Hybrid
Plant Model
This model is a
hierarchical mixture of
three models of
computation (MoCs): DE,
FSM, and CT.
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The Hybrid
Plant Model
Raw material buffer filling
during setup time
Bottle filling at
maximum rate
Raw material buffer filling
during setup time
Bottle filling at
limited rate
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Conclusions
We have given a rigorous semantics to
discrete-event systems that leverages
principles from synchronous/reactive
languages and admits interoperability with
both SR and continuous-time models.
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Further Reading
[1] X. Liu and E. A. Lee, "CPO Semantics of Timed Interactive
Actor Networks," UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, Technical
Report EECS-2006-67, May 18 2006.
[2] X. Liu, E. Matsikoudis, and E. A. Lee, "Modeling Timed
Concurrent Systems," in CONCUR 2006 - Concurrency
Theory, Bonn, Germany, 2006.
[3] A. Cataldo, E. A. Lee, X. Liu, E. Matsikoudis, and H. Zheng,
"A Constructive Fixed-Point Theorem and the Feedback
Semantics of Timed Systems," in Workshop on Discrete
Event Systems (WODES), Ann Arbor, Michigan, 2006.
[4] E. A. Lee, "Modeling Concurrent Real-time Processes
Using Discrete Events," Annals of Software Engineering,
vol. 7, pp. 25-45, March 4th 1998 1999.
[5] E. A. Lee, H. Zheng, and Y. Zhou, "Causality Interfaces and
Compositional Causality Analysis," in Foundations of
Interface Technologies (FIT), Satellite to CONCUR, San
Francisco, CA, 2005.
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Semantics of Merge
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Implementation of Merge
private List pendingEvents;
fire() {
foreach input s {
if (s is present) {
pendingEvents.append(event from s);
}
}
if (pendingEvents has events) {
send to output (pendingEvents.first);
pendingEvents.removeFirst();
}
if (pendingEvents has events) {
post event at the next index on the event queue;
}
}
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